Many people expect Sen. Dianne Feinstein to join Sen. Barbara Boxer in retirement in 2018, the same year Gov. Jerry Brown will be termed out. The ensuing scramble for California’s top three seats could determine whether the state’s dominant Democratic Party swings in a conservative or progressive direction.

“Once you run and once you win with an unabashed progressive feminist standard, then it becomes easier for everybody else who’s running,” says the chair of the California Democratic Party Women’s Caucus about Boxer’s legacy.

“It’s just a fake front issue to talk about abortion,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said of HR 7, the anti-choice bill passed just hours before Tuesday’s State of the Union address. “What they’re really talking about is contraception, family planning, the judgment of women.”